A former Navy SEAL and big supporter of President-elect Donald Trump's potential plan to create a national registry of Muslims actually cited the Japanese internment camps of World War II as "precedent" for such a civil rights disaster.

During an appearance Wednesday night on Fox News, Carl Higbie rationalized that our country has done it before as reason enough to start tracking all Muslim immigrants and visitors from other countries.

"To be perfectly honest, it is legal," he told host Megyn Kelly. "We did it during World War II with the Japanese, which, you know, call it what you will, maybe –"

Kelly cut him off to clarify that he wasn't actively advocating for a return to the World War II-era camps where more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent were jailed after Pearl Harbor.

Advertisement

"I'm just saying there is precedent for it, and I'm not saying I agree with it," Higbie replied. "Look, the president needs to protect America first."